Joe Campanale is reinventing high-low dining all over again

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Dec 31, 2017524

BY: Courtney Schiessl

The hottest reservation in New York City right now isn’t some old-school grand dame or Michelin-starred Manhattan boite. It’s Fausto, a laid-back Italian restaurant on a wide, commercial avenue in Brooklyn, tucked between two quiet, residential neighborhoods.

Fausto opened on December 9. It was a curious move for owner and beverage director Joe Campanale, the now-33-year-old sommelier who held rank among the New York restaurant elite before most 20-somethings firmly quit the ramen-and-Franzia diet. By the age of 30, Campanale was at the helm of four of Manhattan’s hottest restaurants, had been named one of Food & Wine’s Sommeliers of the Year, and was included on “30 Under 30” lists by Forbes, Wine & Spirits, and Zagat, to name a few.